A new enterprise for a new economy

Hi,
Against the doom and gloom of the GFC emerges a surprisingly good news story – the growth of the ‘enterprise culture’.  At the forefront of this rising tide of self-employment and small business ownership women firmly stand, with stats for last year showing twice as many businesses were started by women than men.

From mothers juggling babes and business at the kitchen table to the ‘one - woman show’ running a restaurant or retail outlet to the woman at the helm of a large business there’s a stampede of women creating new business.

Born from seeds of initiative and self-reliance this powerful movement is committed to creating a business culture based on our values rather than the predetermined values of the existing business structure and culture. We’ll do it our way …. whatever that way is!  Whilst this ‘new economy’ is exciting, edgy and offers women enormous opportunity it also contains greater risk and insecurity.

In a speech recently I stated that I didn’t think SHE Business would have existed 10 years ago, maybe not even 5 years ago and I believe this to be so. We are very much a new enterprise, a business club for entrepreneurs and businesswomen offering distinct products and services to the forerunners of this new economy.

Next month we officially launch SHE Business and we do it with our partner Women in Focus and alongside two great leaders,Avril Henry and Dr Helena Popovic who are guest speakers at our celebratory and powerful event, Fearlessly Creating.

Our wish is for you to join us - why?

• To be inspired to greatness in 2012
• To access cutting edge research and thinking in Leadership – both personal and professional
• Connect with members and guests of SHE Business
• And discover this new enterprise - SHE Business

Fearlessly Creating
Date:  Wednesday December 7th 2011
Time: 9.15 – 1:00pm
Venue:  Chatswood Golf Club


Cost:
$65 - Members
$77 - Non members

Includes champagne and fruit mince pies 

BOOK HERE
 
For further information visit our website shebusiness.com

List'em Up

List’em up…

Have you noticed how human beings love lists? There’s the famous The New York Times Bestseller List, Fortune 500(American corporations), the Forbes List of The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women (including three Australians … can you guess who?), and the Guinness Book of Records, which is one long list.

There are multiple lists of 100 all-time favourite movies, greatest songs, albums etc, so I wasn’t surprised when I came across the list of 100 entrepreneurs who didn’t complete college.

Some names you’ll recognise immediately such as Steve Wozniak (Apple), Vidal Sassoon, Richard Branson, Jerry Yang (Yahoo!) and Walt Disney. You can click here for the complete list.

So if a college degree isn’t essential for entrepreneurial success, I became keenly interested in discovering the attributes that are. In my research I came across more lists, more than half a dozen that laid claim to containing the essential attributes for success. The one I liked most read as follows:

ATTRIBUTES OF SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS:

1.     Inner drive to succeed
2.     Strong belief in themselves
3.     Search for new ideas and innovation
4.     Openness to change
5.     Competitive by nature
6.     Highly motivated and energetic
7.     Accepting of constructive criticism and rejection

Having reflected on this list for a few days, I decided that each of these attributes contributed to a clear path of thought; uncluttered by any murky waters of doubt, it allowed the entrepreneur to ask just one question:

How?  Could ‘How’ really be the entrepreneur’s best friend? 


It certainly confers certainty and opens the creative hatch.  So I'm giving it a go, I’m taking ‘how’ into every aspect of my life – health, family, business – and whenever I sense overwhelm or a challenging scenario, I can play this trump card, focusing my attention on just one inevitable outcome, success … I just have to find out how!

‘How’ … do you like it?

Basil Fawlty would have been proud with this level of service

I was at a conference last week and heard one presenter after another, from economists to marketing experts, confirm that changing times and an uncertain business world would be the norm for some time to come.

High levels of customer service were given as the anecdote for these uncertain times, keep your customer happy and your business will survive and thrive, so I was appalled when a few days later I experienced the WORST kind of customer service.

For more than 12 months I’ve met my members at a certain golf club on the north shore for a healthy light lunch - until last month when, for some obscure reason they served us an unhealthy lunch of fried fish nuggets and chips! As our plates hit the table there was an embarrassed silence, which I quickly filled with an apology, assuring them this is not what I had ordered, nor the usual standard of fare. 

A few weeks later they sent me an invoice for the meal, surprised they hadn’t called me to discuss I immediately rang and again raised my concerns about the meal. I mentioned that I would have to compensate my guests for the food - I promise a light and healthy lunch and they got fried food.  The functions manager who is a lovely but powerless chap said he had no authority in this matter and he would refer it to the general manager.  I received an email saying  "there will not be any possibility of financial compensation".  No phone call, no discussion! Annoyed they didn’t have the decency to call me I fired back with this:

"Your general manager obviously has no idea how to keep customers.  What was served up was a disgrace!  I could get better food at the local 2 star hamburger joint and as David will testify my members felt similarly as the food was still on the plate when he cleared the tables.  It was inedible.  Please have your general manager call me as soon as possible to sort this out". 

I didn't hear a word.

I wondered whether I was going a little crazy, expecting too much from this north shore golf club so I spoke with a few mates of mine in the restaurant business to get their perspective.  Their jaws dropped in horror!

I persevered and put in another call to the general manager who finally deemed it important enough to call me back.  Not really helpful though as this was all he said:

"I will not discuss this with you until the invoice has been paid in full, I will not discuss this with you until the invoice has been paid in full, I will not discuss this with you until the invoice has been paid in full".

When in huge frustration I said "I can't believe you won't conduct a conversation till I pay the invoice he said with great sarcasm "you're a quick learner, you've finally got it, and no I won't discuss this till the invoice is paid in full".  At this point I knew there was no return so I finished the phone call.

I’m obviously frustrated by the experience, particularly because NO ONE WOULD LISTEN TO ME, so what's the cost of ignoring your customers?

I will never return - a regular monthly booking for local businesswomen

I have told the story many times over to friends and colleagues

I will mention it to my extended network

I could well publish a blog about it.

And all because they wouldn't listen to me, speak to me, offer a compromise, show empathy and understanding of the embarrassment they created in front of my members and guests.  I wasn't going to ask for a full refund I just wanted a fair hearing and a sympathetic ear.

We can all learn from this experience.  You don't need to work in the realm of 'the customer is always right' but you do have to listen, learn, show empathy and understanding and god forbid apologise when it doesn't go right.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.  Is this the norm in Australia?

Innovation ... or failing quickly

Good morning Wonderful People

As many of you already know SHE Business is a partner of Commonwealth Bank Women in Focus and last week I had the pleasure of attending their 2nd Annual Conference.  We heard from some amazing people on incredibly diverse subjects - we were inspired by Ronni Khan from OzHarvest and Cathy Burke from The Hunger Project, we were entertained by Andy Lark and Emma Lo Russo as they explored the social media rampage and we were given business insights from Deloittes, McKinseys and the chief economist from the Commonwealth Bank.

We heard from people traversing a constantly changing business market and the sort of attitude and skills required to do it successfully.  Innovating and having a structure for innovation was given as a core ingredient for success so having heard it from the experts I thought I'd share their 6 top tips:

1. Innovation is the oxygen of progress - eloquent and so very true.

2. Innovation has altered the conventional business lifecycle - it's called the 3 Horizon Model
          Horizon 1 - The business of today
          Horizon 2 - The business of tomorrow
          Horizon 3 - The business of the day after tomorrow (this is where breakthrough innovation occurs)

An attendee at the conference who had previously been using the old business model was able to clearly project the end of a lifecycle of one of her products by using this new model.

3. Failure is inherent in innovation - get ready to learn the valuable lessons and get used to processing failure powerfully.

4. Testing the market is integral to innovation: setup, prototype, test the market, refine and retest, evaluate your findings.

5. Innovation is required in 3 areas of business - People, Processes and Technologies

6. Diversity is key to innovation

Innovation is key whether you're providing products or services, whether you service B2B or B2C.  If you've previously viewed innovation as something only technology companies need to consider, think again.  Creating a culture of creativity and innovation is an essential tool for business success.

For me the greatest 'take out' was being able to create a powerful framework for failure!  We all need to be prepared to test the market and if somethings not working be prepared to pull it from market without worrying about what others may think.  The most successful entrepreneurs understand that 99% of success is failure.

Have you been successfully innovating in your business and do you have a structure for innovation?

Love to hear your thoughts.

PS Creating powerful contexts for honest and open discussion is just one of the benefits of a SHE Business membership, why not find your nearest chapter and discover what else a SHE Business membership can do for your business.

23 days

Good morning gorgeous people

Yesterday I sat in my car and cried.

How can you not cry when you hear of Somali women escaping war and famine on foot with children in tow.

How can you not cry at the desperation of Somali women walking 23 days to get to a refuge camp.

How can you not cry when you hear of Somali women having to leave their dead children at the side of the road in order to save the lives of their surviving ones.

How can you not cry when you think of their desperation and courage.

How can you not cry when you think they'll spend years in a refugee camp (if they survive the regular outbreak of disease).

I can't get 23 days out of my head.  How many meals we have in 23 days, how much sleep we get, how many times we get to relax, see friends, be creative, whinge and whine, be productive.

And they keep walking.

23 days.

What do the Brady Bunch and Online Networking have in common?

Q:  What do the Brady Bunch and Online Networking have in common?

A:  They’re both saccharin sweet for easy digestion

Today I’m tired with most of my energy is being diverted to keeping a positive mindset rather than clearly strategizing and executing my business.

I turned to twitter and facebook for distraction and found myself reading through reams of positive and inspirational quotes and jealously eyeing the fabulous events happening in the lives others. Instead of feeling uplifted I found myself feeling agitated.

SHE Business has a private online Members Lounge so I decided to visit and have a really honest conversation with other members, “this is how I am today, it feels tough, nothing wrong but hey if you’re feeling the same, it’s life, it’s business “.

I’m not about to divulge the private comments of fellow members but I will share with you a sense of the most communal and enormous sigh of relief …. finally someone was being real.

As business owners we daily take on mind-blowing challenges and most of the time we nail it and start hunting for the next one. To pretend it’s always ‘fabulous’ lacks integrity and to make comparisons with saccharin sweet one dimensional versions of people on social media is incredibly damaging.

I don’t believe online networking will change and maybe it shouldn’t but I do think we need to remind each other that just as the Brady Bunch is not a true reflection of family life, social media is not a true reflection of life.

(if I’m wrong and social media is a true reflection then my life sux in comparison)

Love to hear your thoughts

What materials do you need for a successful word of mouth campaign?

Good morning Gorgeous People

I always keep my eye on the "networking" world and I usually drop by to see what Ivan Misner, the grand daddy of networking, has been up to.

I really loved his advice for gathering the right tools for a successful word-of-mouth campaign and thought I'd share them with you here today.

USEFUL TOOLS FOR A SUCCESSFUL WORD-OF-MOUTH CAMPAIGN

1-Testimonial letters from satisfied clients
2-Photos of yourself, your office facilities, equipment, and/or products
3-Logos of your key customers
4-A list of your memberships and affiliations
5-Question-and-answer sheets
6-Photos of awards and certificates you and your staff have earned
7-Articles you have published, or in which you’re mentioned
8-A one-page flier
9-New-product or service announcements or press releases
10-Current brochures, circulars, and data sheets, and product catalogs
11-Items that reflect your “brand”
12-Items that help you explain your business to your network
13-Client or customer proposals, bid sheets, or marketing letters you have written to existing clients
14-Articles on trends affecting your target market

Would you add anything else to this list? Love to hear from you.